Mentor
by Initial A
Summary: It's time for the Sailor Quartet to begin training as proper Sailor Senshi. Neo-Queen Serenity's guardians are prepared to take on this new duty, but from the start it's clear that nothing is going to go as planned.
1. Choosing

**Mentor**

**By: InitialA**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon.**

**Author's Note: Sometimes you just have to side-eye fanon and do a complete 180-degree turn. That's what happened here. I haven't decided yet if this takes place in the same convoluted mess of time stream mixing and branching off that 'Regency' does, but I'll figure that out as I'm writing. However, I will again be mixing anime and manga canon. Enjoy.**

* * *

"Are we agreed?" Cere asked.

Her sisters nodded. Today would be one of the most important days of their lives: the day they chose their mentors. Lady Serenity, of course, had studied under her mother in the 20th century, but they had had no such luxury. The Amazon sisters had only recently been awakened as Lady Serenity's guardians, and their skills were weak at best. As Lady Serenity had begun her formal education as a princess in her mother's palace on the moon, and as such was under the protection of the outer system Senshi, the King had decided it was time for formal warrior education for her new guard.

They stepped into the crystal meeting room, where they found the Queen's personal guard waiting for them. Cere felt her palms start to sweat. It was one thing to see these powerful women in the halls of the Palace, where they might acknowledge you with only a nod; it was quite another to suddenly find yourself under their scrutinizing gazes. Only Venus seemed to have a glint of humor in her eyes; Mars could have been carved from marble with as much emotion she gave away. Mercury seemed distracted as she looked over their new charges, but Jupiter made Cere want to run in terror. She seemed relaxed enough, but they'd all heard stories of what Jupiter was like in battle.

"Well, girls," Mercury began after they'd all stared at each other long enough, "I don't think we've all been formally introduced. Welcome to the Palace. I'm sure you all know who we are, but we aren't entirely sure who you are and what you're capable of."

Cere's mouth felt paper-dry. Jun elbowed her—hard—and she jumped. Of course: eldest sister, always going first. _Traitor_, she thought. "My name is Cere. Sailor Ceres. My power lies in plant manipulation, for the most part."

"I'm Palla. Sailor Pallas. I'm a telepath, and… well, I'm not sure how my power works." Palla fidgeted nervously. Cere laid her hands on her sister's shoulders soothingly. "That's what we're going to work on, sweetling."

Jun crossed her arms over her chest. "Jun. Sailor Juno. I have water and illusion magic."

Ves was leaning against the wall, trying to look cool. "I'm Ves. Sailor Vesta. My attacks are all animal-themed. I shape-shifted once too."

"We're all skilled acrobats as well," Jun added. "Though I'm sure you all remember that."

The Senshi smirked as one. Cere wondered if they all thought similarly now, after living and fighting as one for so many centuries. "Wonderful. Well, if we all know who we're pairing off with… we should begin," Mercury said, looking at Palla; then her brow furrowed.

Palla went to Mars, and forced her hands to remain still at her sides. "Mars-sama, I would be honored if you would be my teacher."

Mars blinked. "Eh… O-Of course, Palla-chan. The honor is mine, t-to teach you."

Cere steeled herself, going to Jupiter. "Jupiter-sama, as our powers are similarly suited in nature, I hoped you would be my teacher."

"I… yes, of course," Jupiter said, glancing at Mercury in obvious confusion.

"Venus-sama, I'm gonna be honest and say I'm not sure what you have to teach me. My sisters called dibs on the others for mentors first, but I know you know your way around a whip. I hope you can figure out what to teach me, because I don't have a clue," Ves said bluntly.

Venus laughed outright. "Sure thing, kiddo. We'll figure it out."

Mercury looked to see Jun standing before her. "We fish have to stick together, right, Mercury-sensei?"

Mercury nodded, still slightly taken aback, and said, "Of course, Ves-san. I'll do my best if you do yours."

* * *

"Well, that didn't go as planned," Venus said, stretching her arms behind her head as they entered the royal audience chamber.

Endymion looked up. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Jupiter shrugged. "I don't think it'll be horrible…"

Mars elbowed Mercury. "Someone didn't figure in four ornery kids with free will in her equations. We'll work it out eventually."

Serenity remained seated on her crystal throne. She had learned long ago that standing impressed no one, even on the raised dias. "Ami-chan?"

The blue-haired woman was blushing. "I had based some preliminary personality assessments in my calculations, Your Majesty… Jun is very athletic, and I had thought she would enjoy working with Jupiter. Cere is the captain of Lady Serenity's guard, and as such I thought it natural she be paired with Venus, to learn how to lead. Ves' temper could certainly benefit from meditation with Mars, and Palla is a gifted telepath with unimaginable untapped intelligence that I hoped to tap into and improve her abilities."

Serenity was smiling. "And how did it turn out?"

"They chose based on their abilities, really," Jupiter explained. "Smart kids, going where they thought they could benefit most. Cere is with me, Palla is with Mars, Jun is with Mercury, and…"

"Ves is with me," Venus finished. "Neither of us know what the hell to do with the other, but at least the kid's honest about it. We'll figure something."

Mars felt a little guilty about teasing Mercury. "It's not like we won't be switching off occasionally, Ami-chan. Cere still needs to learn how to act as a leader and body double, and I'm already counting on Minako to dump Ves on me for meditation."

"You'll keep me informed on Palla's progress?" Mercury asked. "We have no one of her power in recorded history; I don't want to miss an opportunity to track her abilities."

Venus grinned. "Maybe it's a good thing the poor girl chose Mars, if you were gonna use her as a lab rat. I pity Jun, she might come running to Mako-chan for hand-to-hand combat drills before the week's up."

Mercury blushed further; more from her slow temper lighting up than anything else. Jupiter raised her hands for peace. "Come on, girls, let's not start this already. I'll gladly take them all for group combat practice. They're probably better at that than we give credit for, if they're as flexible now as they were under Nehellenia's influence."

Serenity cleared her throat. Everyone looked at her. "I'm sure that everyone will benefit from these new arrangements. The path we take is not always the path we choose ourselves, and that is often all for the better."

Endymion took her hand. "Robert Frost. Well said, my lady."

"Hmph. When did odango atama start quoting poetry?" Mars asked, her eyes glinting with wicked humor.

Serenity stuck her tongue out.

* * *

-_And how was your day?_—Lady Serenity's image was on their holo-vid screen. She looked tired—even her rabbit-ear odango drooped—but was ever-eager to keep strengthening her bond with her new senshi. Even if it meant staying up later than intended.

Cere tried her best to be cheery. "We chose which of your mother's guardians would mentor us, Lady. It went… well enough."

Lady Serenity frowned. -_What do you mean, well enough?_—

The Amazon sisters glanced at each other. Ves finally shrugged. "I don't think it went the way they expected, m'lady."

-_What were they expecting?—_

"I don't know," Jun said.

"Not who they got," Palla was twiddling her fingers together. "I could feel their energy. Mercury-sama was very confused and a little angry… Mars-sama was the same. Jupiter-sama was confused at first but recovered, and I don't think Venus-sama cared how it went."

Lady Serenity started to smile. –_Of course Mina-chan didn't care. But Ami-chan, angry? That doesn't sound like her at all. Did you sense anything else, Palla?—_

Palla shook her head. Lady Serenity steepled her fingers, leaning back. –_Of course, I bet she told Minako-chan that Cere would want to work with her, since they're both the leaders… But I don't think they knew your powers. Maybe they thought you'd have similar powers to them, and want to pair off that way.—_

"But that's what we did!" Jun protested.

Lady Serenity was grinning at this point. –_No, no, you misunderstand me. Think more… basically. Rei's fuku is red because she commands fire. How can we tell that Ves controls animals if her fuku is also red? Maybe they thought that your colors linked to your powers, and you'd link that way_.—

The sisters blinked. "Ehhh?"

"How bizarre…" Cere mused. "After all, my fuku corresponds more with yours than Venus-sama's…"

Palla blinked. "Mercury-sama and I don't share any powers in common…"

"Your hair baubles in uniform are bubble-ish," Jun pointed out.

"But that's not my power… No more than your uniform's headdress is a power…"

Cere fingered one of her long braids. "This is all very odd, your highness."

Lady Serenity shrugged. –_You'll figure it out. I have faith_.—

"It's getting late, Lady. Neptune-sama is gonna be mad if you oversleep," Palla said.

The princess smiled. –_If you insist. Good night, girls!—_

"G'night."

The connection ended. Ves stretched back. "Well, we'd better hit the sack too. Last thing we want is to disappoint our new teachers…"

"It's not like we can't disappoint them further," Jun muttered.

Cere couldn't help but agree slightly. Palla looked uncharacteristically depressed. Ves frowned. "Well, that's a great attitude to have."

"Says the one with a teacher who doesn't care one way or the other," Jun shot back.

"Please don't fight. It's already bad enough!" Palla cried.

"Palla is right. We need to stick together, especially if things go horribly," Cere said.

"It won't," Ves said stubbornly.

"I'll take that bet…" Jun muttered.

**((I kind of got tired of seeing the Sailor Quartet paired off with the senshi that match their uniform, under the assumption that they're either mentored or share powers. So… here's my attempt at exploring different character relationships! Please let me know what you think! Thanks!))**


	2. Cere's First Day

**Mentor**

**By: InitialA**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon.**

* * *

"WAKE UUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPP!" Palla screeched, yanking the blankets off of Cere.

Her elder sister curled up into a ball and stuffed her head under her pillow. "Go away, Palla!" Her shouting was muffled.

"It's the first day, first day, first daaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy you don't want to be laaaaaaaate!" Palla sang, grabbing Cere's feet and wiggling them.

"Uuuuuuuuuuugh, I'll be up in a minute, just go away before I tack you to the wall with thorns, and then Mars-sama can burn them off of you when she comes and yells at you."

"Grumpy-face!"

"THORNS. WALL. LEAVE."

Palla left, humming; the door slid shut behind her. Cere growled, grabbing her blanket from the floor and wrapping herself in it, falling back on the bed with a scowl. The Palace was freezing this time of year, combating the muggy heat that Crystal Tokyo summers were famed for. Born and nurtured in the Amazon while they slept, however, Cere and her sisters were more suited to heat and humidity; Cere often felt like she was getting frostbite on her edges. As much as she looked forward to someday being a full-fledged Senshi, she was also dreading the day when she'd have to wear her uniform constantly. Maybe Lady Serenity could be convinced to ease up on the climate control…

Cere drifted in her thoughts as they became more bizarre and jumped from A to Q and then from W to F in place of logical order, until her muscles jerked for a moment and she woke up with a start. She lifted her head off her pillow and smothered a shriek of dismay: she was forty-five minutes late for her first lesson with Jupiter-sama.

She leapt out of bed, tripping over her shoes in the process and grabbed the first set of clothes that looked like the might possibly match out of her dresser. She wailed when she saw her hair in the mirror; her night-braids hadn't held and it was a complete disarray. "I'm chopping it off, I swear! I hate my hair!" She shouted to the empty suite she shared with her sisters.

There wasn't time for a proper shower either, so she did her best to untangle and reweave it into some kind of braid, and coiled it around her head, pinning it in place. "Stay," she commanded, glaring at her hair in the mirror; she threw on her clothes, swished with mouthwash, and sprinted out of the suite towards Jupiter's domain: the kitchens.

She skidded to a halt outside of the doors, breathing hard and commanding her lungs to be satisfied with what they got, and checked her hair as she entered. "Jupiter-sama, I—"

"A long time ago, I had a friend who was late to school almost every day because she was fond of sleeping," Jupiter didn't even look up from the dough she was kneading. "Of course, after a while she slept in because we were out until all hours fighting our enemies, but I'd still catch her napping during our school breaks and after-school study sessions, just because she liked sleeping so much. Now, we all know it was probably because we were all growing up and our bodies needed the rest, and she most of all because of how powerful she was as a Senshi on top of normal growing pains. She was keeping herself healthy. But even now we catch her snoozing when she has work to do: all because Serenity-sama likes nothing more than sleeping when she has something more important to do instead. She refuses to have Mercury analyze her; Mercury thinks it's some kind of stress response. I just think our queen is lazy."

Cere stayed quiet, waiting for the scolding to come. Jupiter finally looked up. Her face was smutched with flour. "And sometimes it's all right to be lazy. You've seen with your own eyes what our lazy queen can get done when she puts her mind to it. And honestly, at this point I think Serenity-sama knows when she can snooze and when she needs to tough it out and get something done. But you, my girl, you haven't hit that point yet. We've got a lot of ground to cover, you and me, and one of those things we need to talk about is the importance of timeliness."

Cere nodded. "I'm sorry I was late, Jupiter-sama."

"I'm not mad. Mistakes happen. Not a great first impression, if this was our first meeting, but your sisters warned me that you're the lazy one. Get an alarm clock, put it on the other side of the room, and set it ninety minutes ahead of when you need to be somewhere. Play music on it, something where you can have half an hour to wake up and not hate every second of it, and then you have an hour to shower and get ready and eat something and get there on time. I bet you didn't get a chance to eat, did you?"

"No, ma'am."

Jupiter tossed her a fresh-baked roll. It had almonds and raisins in it, and was glazed with honey, and was still warm as Cere devoured it. Jupiter tossed her another as she said, "Why don't you girls wear your hair the same as when you're in uniform?"

Cere blinked, and remembered to swallow before answering. "Why? Don't you?"

Jupiter shrugged. "Rarely have the occasion not to be in uniform these days, but even before that, none of us really wore it differently. Sometimes, on a special occasion, but it was always easier to throw mine in a ponytail every day. One less thing to worry about in the morning, you know?"

"Ours is the same. Jun and Palla have headdresses. Palla's looks like her hair, but it's not. The front two baubles have some of her hair wrapped around them, but everything else is decoration. Jun's headdress is cumbersome. I tried it on once, it was frankly ridiculous. If Ves had the patience to wrap her hair in those bangles every day, I'd renounce my powers and become a priestess. And mine is too difficult to style without help. So we all do whatever we like outside of our uniforms, and it provides a little extra security in our identities," Cere explained.

"I see. Well, grab an apron and help me get the bread ready to bake. The rest of the kitchen staff doesn't get in for another hour and a half, and we need to have as much ready as possible for the rest of the day," Jupiter gestured to the rack behind her.

Cere blinked. "B-But I thought…"

Jupiter smiled, not altogether pleasantly. "You didn't think we'd spend the entire time just working on your skills as a fighter, did you? I can bake and cook, tend the gardens and greenhouses, clean a room so well that Mercury could perform surgery in it, and after all that I'll still be fresh enough to kick your butt around the gymnasium for a few hours. You'll learn something useful as well, real-world useful, that you can use to cater favor with diplomats and bring honor to Lady Serenity when her time comes on the throne."

Cere obeyed, making sure her hair was still pinned up correctly, and listened as Jupiter explained what to do. They worked quietly for a while, Cere concentrating on making more dough, until she couldn't take it any longer. "Was Her Majesty really that lazy when you were children?" She blurted out.

Jupiter threw her head back and laughed. "I wondered how long you'd stew on that."


	3. Palla's New Lessons

**Mentor**

**By: InitialA**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Sailor Moon.**

**Author's Note: Since I've had a lot of questions, each chapter will probably switch POVs, but it won't always stick to the same day. We're building into an eventual plot, and I will be bringing in Lady Serenity's POV and some Helios as we go in further.**

* * *

She was nervous. She hated feeling like this, especially around someone who was supposed to be one of the most trusted people in her life, but things weren't progressing as well as she'd hoped. "It's okay, Palla," she told herself as she walked across the gardens. "Mars-sama doesn't hate you, she just doesn't… get you yet. And it could be worse. She could be mean. Disappointed isn't the same as being mean, and you know how mean she can get."

Still, she took to the stairs with some trepidation. She hated disappointing people.

"I think we're ready to move to a different meditation style today," Mars said when Palla arrived at the palace shrine.

Her heart swelled. Palla tried her best not to show her glee; sitting calmly in a quiet room was Mars' preferred meditation style, and Palla had shown almost no aptitude for it. After three weeks of sitting and trying to empty her brain of thoughts and finding her inner calm to control her powers, Palla was ready for something new. Sitting still was boring. Being quiet was boring. She took several deep breaths to calm herself down; while she didn't want to hurt Mars' feelings further, she knew that learning to keep her emotions in check was one of her training goals.

Mars was muttering something to herself; Palla heard the words "Usagi" and "patience", but she didn't quite understand. Her mentor took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Now, this is a technique I've only recently mastered myself. But knowing how fidgety you are, and how you need to remember how to control yourself while you're in battle, this might be a better fit for you. I've asked Jupiter to assist today, she's much better at it than I am."

"Only because you're such a traditionalist," Jupiter teased, walking up to them. "I've branched out in my martial arts studies."

"Kendo would be perfect if she needed to use a sword, but she's not Haruka," Mars countered.

"Haruka would have to care about kendo to utilize it."

Palla tried not to fidget as the two women bickered. Mars thought that her abundant energy and often-extreme emotions were signs that her psychic powers were breaking out of what little control she had; it was the biggest reason that "control, control, control" had been drummed into her head for the last month. Palla hadn't been convinced of this until three weeks ago, when she'd lost control of her temper during combat training and sent her sisters soaring forty feet into the air and left them dangling there without realizing what she was doing. Ves, Jun, and Cere had been stuck until Mars could come and coach Palla through meditation and grasping her powers to bring them safely down. That experience, combined with a few other instances that Palla eventually confessed to, sealed her fate. She and Mars had mapped out exactly where they needed to focus their efforts to harness her abilities. Mars even speculated that Palla might be capable of killing someone if she didn't learn control, and Palla had had enough of that in the Dead Moon Circus.

Jupiter glanced at her, and smiled. "Don't look so scared. It'll be fine. We're going to do Tai Chi. Its meditation while moving, essentially. We'll start off with some basics."

Palla allowed Jupiter to move her body into position. Head and neck straight, looking forward. Relaxed shoulders. Feet together, hands clasped in front of her belly. "Breathe like Mars taught you. Slow in, hold, slow out. Count of seven. Breathe with your movements," Jupiter's voice fell to just above a whisper.

Palla was guided through several exercises to loosen her muscles. Jupiter's voice was soothing, and helped her fall into her breathing pattern. The gentle exercises were enough to help her slip into a dazed state; a distant part of her wondered if this was the meditative state Mars was always telling her to find. Mars, too, was moving as Palla did, but facing her. "She's getting there," she heard Mars say with wonder.

She saw Jupiter nod out of the corner of her eye. "You were right to change styles; I can see a difference already."

Palla wanted to ask what she meant, but the part of her with a voice seemed to be taking a nap. That was a strange feeling, being in a place of utter calm and quiet inside. She wasn't thinking of nothing, as Mars had wanted her to, but she felt as if her mind were like the pond in the park. Thoughts were ripples across the surface: nothing that hurt the overall structure and soon enough everything was still again. She hoped that being a pond was similar enough to thinking of nothing.

"Palla, we're going to start now, just follow my voice okay? Don't break out of where you are now, stay in that space. Follow what I'm saying," Jupiter said softly. "Stand straight, and close your eyes, keep breathing in your pattern. When you exhale, I want you to imagine letting all your negative energies out through your fingers. They're out, going away. You're peaceful inside, all calm and happy. All the restless, negative energy is gone. Good, keep breathing. Now shift all your weight to your right leg, and slowly start lifting your left leg out… good, now set it down, and find your center… lift your arms up, palms down… spread your fingers nice and wide, good just like that… now push down gently, and bend at the knees…. Good, good, now hold, and breathe…"

Jupiter guided her through this position, called The Opening, several more times, before moving to Parting the Wild Horse's Mane, and then finally White Crane Spreads its Wings. Palla found that starting a new form would bring her out of her meditation, but repeating the motions until it felt comfortable could easily help her slip back into it. To finish the lesson, Jupiter walked her through the stretches and blending the three forms seamlessly several times until she was satisfied that Palla would be able to practice on her own that night. "We'll know if you aren't practicing," Jupiter said after Palla came out of her meditation. "I know it's a little rough to balance everything we want you girls to do, but discipline is good for everyone."

Palla nodded. "Yes, Jupiter-sama. Thank you for your kindness today."

She bowed, first to Jupiter and then to Mars, and then left for investigation training with Venus. Jupiter lightly punched Mars on the shoulder. "See, she's not nearly as bad as Usagi was at that age."

"You haven't had her for a month…" Mars grumbled.

"No, but I've had Cere, who is possibly even lazier than Usagi."

Mars grinned ruefully. "I think the gods are testing us. We had to grow up with Usagi, and then they decided we had to teach four of her too."

"Nah, there's only three of her. One of them takes after you," Jupiter teased.

"Oh?"

"Obviously Venus hasn't griped to you about Ves' temper."

"Oh, be quiet, you…"

Palla was doing her meditation when her sisters came in that night. "Palla? You missed dinner, sweetie, is everything okay?" Cere asked.

She nodded, and finished her final form, letting out a breath as she came to a rest. "Yeah. Jupiter-sama said they would be able to tell if I wasn't practicing, so I wanted to get everything perfect."

"We brought you a doggy bag," Jun said, holding up a container.

"I'm not hungry, thank you though."

Her sisters blinked in surprise. "Ehhhh, Palla-chan, did… did Mars-sama do anything different today?"

Palla smiled. "We're learning Tai Chi!"

"You're normally…" Ves paused, trying to think of how to phrase it.

"…not this calm, or polite," Jun finished.

"And you eat more than Jun does after the gym," Cere added.

"Hey!"

"It's true!"

"Mars-sama and Jupiter-sama think that this kind of meditation will help me focus my powers more; and Mars-sama thinks that I am the way that I am because I don't have control over my power. So maybe… maybe this is a good thing, that I'm finally getting control!" Palla grinned.

Cere hugged her around the shoulders. "That's wonderful, sweetling, but you still do need to eat something. I know you aren't hungry, but just take a few bites for me, okay?"

"More leftovers for me!" Ves declared.

"You already had two helpings of everything!"

"It's not my fault Jupiter trained all the cooks! It's all so good!"

Palla giggled, taking the container from Jun as her sisters argued. Normally, all the noise and fuss would bother her to the point of tears, but today it didn't. Maybe this was another side-effect of the meditation—of gaining control of her powers. It was another question for Mars, but right now she just enjoyed being able to let her sisters get their frustrations with one another out of their systems.

* * *

((As Tai Chi is a Chinese art, and Rei is a Shinto priestess… she might be a 30th century gal, but I feel that Rei is a traditionalist in a lot of ways. She would have learned kicking and screaming, so Makoto is Palla's beginner teacher))


End file.
